Investigation of Optimum Dose of Gamma Irradiation and Ems (Single and Combination Treatments) to Induce Mutation in Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) Wild Cultivar

In induced mutation breeding program, it is necessary to find the optimum dose for inducing mutation. Effective dose is vary plant to plant depends on size of seeds. There is inverse relation size of seeds and concentration of mutagen. Parameter of consideration of optimum dose for mutagenesis is germination around 50 % of seeds after mutagenesis is indication of successive mutagenesis. In this mutagenesis investigation 50% seed germination is observed in treatment of gamma irradiation 300 Gy and EMS 0.3 %. Another great decrease in seed germination of 80 % is observed in combination treatments 300 Gy + 0.3 and 400 Gy + 0.3 %

Ant Species Richness Around Amravati City Maharashtra, India

Ants deserve a special place in the study of ecology, including behavior, given their species richness, social habits, and high densities, contributing to much of the animal biomes on earth (Gadagkar et.at. 1993). As ants can be studied virtually everywhere from forest interiors below ground, right up to the kitchen, we attempted a study to assess the ant species richness in a variety of habitats in and around Amravati city. The prime objective of this study is to prepare a partial checklist of ants of Amravati and to compare species richness between selected study sites. Eight study sites with different levels and types of vegetation were selected for the study.
We employed an “all out search” method for collection in the months of June and July 2010. Ants were hand collected using a brush and forecep during the day time for 6 hrs at each study site. Collected samples were preserved in 70% alcohol in the Department of Zoology, Govt. Vidarbha Institute of Science & Humanities, Amravati.
We identified Ants up to the genus level by using a Stemi DV4 Stereo microscope based on taxonomic keys of (Holldobles & Wilson, 1990; Bolton, 1994; Mathew & R.N. Tiwari, 2000).
During the present study a total of 34 species of 20 genera have been recognized from Amravati city representing five subfamilies namely Myrmicinae, Formicinae, Ponerinae, Dolichoderinae and Pseudomyrmicinae. Out of this subfamily, Myrmicinae is the most abundant having 11 genera including the genus Rhoptromyrmex. It has been recorded for the first time in this region, followed by Formicinae with four genera for being recorded for the first time as genus Oecophylla. Subfamily Ponerinae and Dolichoderinae were recorded only with two genera each; while the subfamily Pseudomyrmicinae where recorded very poorly with only one genera from G.V.I.S.H. campus.
Few ant genera such as Crematogaster and Myrmicaria of subfamily Myrmicinae, Camponotus and Polyrhachis of subfamily Formicinae and Leptogenys of subfamily Ponerinae were mostly found in all the habitats and most localities. Few genera are confined to few localities or habitat types, such as Rhoptromyrmex and Oecophylla recorded only from Pohara forests. Genus Tetraponera of subfamily Pseudomyrmicinae were collected from the tree trunk of Azadirakhta indica in the G.V.I.S.H. campus. 
Comparison of ant species distribution between the different study sites revealed that ant species richness was highest in Pohara forest with 28 species & lowest with 9 species around urban areas. Relatively high ant species richness was recorded at all the study sites such as the Agriculture field, Tree plantation area, and the Wadali and Chhatri Garden. On the other hand, ant species richness was low around urban houses compared to rural houses due to little or no vegetation and high levels of disturbance. The tree plantation site, roads, and pavement showed higher numbers of ant species compared to around urban areas probably due to road side richness of tree plantation.
From this study we conclude that due to availability of food and shelter, richness of ant species increases in forest and tree plantation areas. The number of ant species declines in low vegetative areas including urban areas. It is possible to study the ecology and biodiversity of living faunas by the studying the habitats of ants. The environs of Amravati city are rich in Ant fauna which deserve further study

Allelic Frequency of ABO And Rh D Blood Group Among The Banjara Backward Caste of Yavatmal District, Maharashtra , India

The distribution of ABO blood groups and Rh(D) factor has been studied among the Banjara of Backward population of Yavatmal (Maharashtra). The A, B, O and AB blood group percentage were recorded as 24.54%, 33.82%, 29.64% and 12% respectively. The allele frequencies of O, A, B and AB groups in the combined data were found to be 0.5354, 0.2022 and 0.2624 respectively. The distribution of Rh(D) group varies among the ABO blood groups. The Rh(D) positive allelic frequency was 0.8405 and the Rh(D) negative incidence was recorded as 02.55% in the studied population

Antimicrobial activity of Acacia nilotica (L.) Del. plant extracts against Xanthomonas malvacearum bacteria

An experiment was conducted to check antibacterial activity of leaf bark and root extracts of Acacia nilotica (L.) Del. Plant against Xanthomonas malvacearum bacteria using agar well diffusion method expressed by zone of inhibition in mm in diameter. Antimicrobial activity of leaf, bark, and root extracts were separately assessed in triplicates for aqueous extracts, ethyl alcohol extracts. The results were compared with standard concentrations of antibiotics streptomycin and tetracycline. The ethyl acetate extracts of root seems to contain antibacterial component more than pure antibiotic with the concentration of 500 ug /ml

Analyses of Omicron genomes from India reveal BA.2 as a more transmissible variant

In the current study, the phylodynamics and phylogenomics of Omicron variants are being examined to provide insight into their evolution. We analyzed 564 genomes deposited to the GISAID database from various states of India. A Pangolin COVID-19 Lineage Assigner tool was used to assign lineages to all retrieved genomes. Maximum likelihood (MLE) tree construction and Reduced Median Joining (RM) network were performed. For phylodynamic analysis, the basic reproduction number (R0) was estimated. A Maximum likelihood tree (MLE) confirms the separation of genomes into two distinct clades, BA. 1. and BA. 2. A very high reproduction number (R0) of 2.445 was estimated for the lineage BA.2. Telangana has the highest R0 value in the country, indicating a high prevalence of the BA.2 lineage. The construction of the Reduced Median (RM) network reveals an evolution of some autochthonous haplogroups and haplotypes, which further supports the rapid evolution of Omicron as opposed to its previous variants. Phylogenomic analyses using maximum likelihood (ML) and RM also reveal the likelihood of the emergence of sub-sublineages and novel haplogroups respectively. Due to the recombinant nature and high transmissibility of the Omicron virus, we suggest continuous and more widespread genome sequencing in all states of India to track the evolution of SARS-CoV-2. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.760799

ABO and Rh Blood Group Distribution Among Kunbis (Maratha) population of Amravati District, Maharashtra

The present study reports the distribution of ABO and Rh blood groups among the Kunbis (Maratha) population of Amravati district. The phenotypic frequency of blood group B is observed highest (33.06) percent, O (31.04), A (27.02) and AB is lowest (08.33) percent. The phenotypic frequency of Rh negative is (04.26) percent. TheKunbis (Maratha) population shows close genetic relationship with the Gujratis

Genetic affinities within a large global collection of pathogenic <i>Leptospira</i>: implications for strain identification and molecular epidemiology

Leptospirosis is an important zoonosis with widespread human health implications. The non-availability of accurate identification methods for the individualization of different Leptospira for outbreak investigations poses bountiful problems in the disease control arena. We harnessed fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis (FAFLP) for Leptospira and investigated its utility in establishing genetic relationships among 271 isolates in the context of species level assignments of our global collection of isolates and strains obtained from a diverse array of hosts. In addition, this method was compared to an in-house multilocus sequence typing (MLST) method based on polymorphisms in three housekeeping genes, the rrs locus and two envelope proteins. Phylogenetic relationships were deduced based on bifurcating Neighbor-joining trees as well as median joining network analyses integrating both the FAFLP data and MLST based haplotypes. The phylogenetic relationships were also reproduced through Bayesian analysis of the multilocus sequence polymorphisms. We found FAFLP to be an important method for outbreak investigation and for clustering of isolates based on their geographical descent rather than by genome species types. The FAFLP method was, however, not able to convey much taxonomical utility sufficient to replace the highly tedious serotyping procedures in vogue. MLST, on the other hand, was found to be highly robust and efficient in identifying ancestral relationships and segregating the outbreak associated strains or otherwise according to their genome species status and, therefore, could unambiguously be applied for investigating phylogenetics of Leptospira in the context of taxonomy as well as gene flow. For instance, MLST was more efficient, as compared to FAFLP method, in clustering strains from the Andaman island of India, with their counterparts from mainland India and Sri Lanka, implying that such strains share genetic relationships and that leptospiral strains might be frequently circulating between the islands and the mainland

Precipitating Factors and The Outcome of Hepatic Encephalopathy in Liver Cirrhosis

Objective: To determine precipitants of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and their impact on hospital stay and mortality. Study Design: Cross-sectional, analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: The Aga Khan University Hospital, from January 2005 to December 2007. Methodology: Consecutive patients admitted with different grades of HE were evaluated between January 2005 and December 2007. The precipitants of HE were correlated with the different grades of HE, and length of hospital stay and mortality. Chi-square test was used to compare the proportion of precipitating factors versus hospital stay and grade with significance at p \u3c 0.05. Results: Of the 404 patients 252 (62%) were males. Hepatitis C virus was the cause of cirrhosis in 283 (70%); Child Turcotte Pugh (CTP) class C was present in 317 (78%) patients. On presentation, 17% patients had grade 1 HE while 44%, 29% and 10% had grades 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The most common precipitant of HE was spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in 83 (20.5%), constipation in 74 (18.3%) and urinary tract infection in 62 (15.3%). One hundred and forty (35%) patients had ³ 2 precipitating factors while no precipitant was noted in 50 (12%) patients. Mean hospital stay was 4±3 days. The lesser the number of precipitants, shorter was the length of stay (p \u3c 0.01) and lesser was the grade of HE (p=0.025). Complete reversal of HE was noted in 366 patients (91%) while the remaining had grade 1 HE on discharge. Nine (2.2%) patients died during the hospital stay. No mortality was noted in patients without precipitants. Conclusion: Patients presenting with ³ 2 precipitating factors and advanced grade of HE had a prolonged hospital stay. Moreover, patients without precipitants had better outcomes

Optimization of non-orthogonal multiple access based visible light communication systems

In visible light communication (VLC), the data is transmitted by modulating the light emitting diode (LED). The data-rate is throttled by the narrow modulation bandwidth of LEDs, which becomes a barrier for attaining high transmission rates. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a new scheme envisioned to improve the system capacity. In addition to multiple access schemes, optimization techniques are applied to further improve the data rate. In this letter, convex optimization is applied to NOMA-based VLC system for downlink. The proposed optimization system is analyzed in terms of the bit error rate (BER) and the sum-rate